Cambodia To Become Lower-Middle-Income Nation By End of 2013: PM
March 4th, 2013, Global Post, Business & Commercial Development, Economics, International Relations
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Monday that the country would move from the status of a low-income to a lower-middle-income nation by the end of this year.
“We acknowledge that we are in the status of a low-income country with GDP per capita of less than 1,000 US dollars last year,” he said during a graduation ceremony of students at the National Institute of Education.
“But from 2013, we will move towards graduation from a low- income to a lower-middle-income country because the GDP per capita will be 1,080 US dollars at the end of this year.” …
Global Times Staff
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/765648.shtml
Dam collapse in Cambodia leaves four workers missing
December 2nd, 2012, Global Post, Electricity, Energy, Hydroelectricity, News Source
Four workers have gone missing after the collapse of an in-progress hydropower dam in Western Cambodia, apparently due to a leak in the structure.
The Associated Press reports that the Saturday collapse occurred at the Stung Atay Hydroelectric Project, a $255-million dollar dam on the Atay river, funded by the Chinese state-owned China Datang Corporation. …
Faine Greenwood
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/cambodia/121202/dam-collapse-cambodia-leaves-four-workers-missing
Laos hydro dam upsets Mekong River neighbors
November 12th, 2012, Global Post, Climate Change, Construction, Disasters & Disaster Management, Economics, Electricity, Energy, Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental change, Hydroelectricity, Infrastructure, International Relations, Lakes/Rivers, News Source, Water
Laos began construction last week on a multi-billion dollar hydro dam project that is opposed by other countries along the Mekong River, and activists who say the project will significantly impact the environment and the economies of four countries that rely on the river for fishing and agriculture.
“The decision by Laos to push ahead with the giant Xayaburi dam makes it the first of what could prove to be a cascade of 11 proposed dams on the lower Mekong,” said the Economist last week. ”Because the decision fails to take account of the consequences for downstream countries, it has raised tensions with neighbors.”
The Xayaburi dam was proposed 18 months ago, and Cambodia and Vietnam asked for more investigation into what the effects the dam will have on the countries downriver. Meanwhile, Thai activists have sued their country for making a deal with Laos to buy electricity generated by the dam and have begun a “flotilla” protest on the river. …
Alex Pearlman
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/rights/laos-hydrodam-mekong-river-vietnam-cambodia
Cambodia: shrinking forests breed violence
November 12th, 2012, Global Post, Economic Land Concessions, Environment & Natural Resources, Forests, International Relations, Land Tenure, Timber/Wood
Hang Serei Oudom told his 7-month pregnant wife that he was going out to meet a source.
A journalist for Vorakchun Khmer Daily, he was investigating illegal logging for luxury woods in the jungles of Cambodia’s northeastern Ratanakkiri province.
Three days later, on Sept. 11, he was found in the trunk of his car, which had been abandoned in a remote cashew nut plantation. “According to the autopsy report, his head was beaten in with a sharp tool, like an axe or a machete,” said investigating judge Luch Lao. “We are investigating the case.”
They needn’t look much further than Oudom’s last article, activists contend. On Sept. 7, he had published a piece accusing local military police captain Ing Sieng Lay of smuggling timber in military vehicles. …
Paul Vrieze and Neou Vannarin
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/cambodia/121008/cambodia-forests-violence-activists-environment
Asian bloggers discuss Internet freedom at Cambodia conference
November 4th, 2012, Global Post, Social Concerns
Bloggers from across Asia came together in the Cambodian city of Siem Reap this weekend to discuss blogging, technology and Internet freedom at 2012′s Blogfest Asia festival, a gathering of over 160 opinionated and distinctly geeky participants. Tops on the agenda? Internet freedom. …
The Cambodian contingent expressed their concern to the crowd over a looming cyber law, which would for the first time enforce restrictions on the Southeast Asian nation’s relatively laissez-faire network.
Bloggers and Internet advocates thus far haven’t been allowed to view a draft of the new legislation, supposedly meant to counter terrorism—and that’s making many uneasy, said Cambodian Center for Human Rights program director and blogger Chak Sopheap …
Faine Greenwood
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/cambodia/121104/asian-bloggers-discuss-internet-freedom-at-cambod
Cambodia: Is Adidas exploiting workers?
August 1st, 2012, Global Post, Garment Industry, Industry, Labor
Am Phalla sits outside the factory gates of apparel maker Shen Zhou (Cambodia) Co. Ltd., sharing a lunch of rice, vegetables and fried fish with coworkers.
She has been sewing clothes at Shen Zhou for a little less than a year, but is unaware that the company, which produces Olympic merchandise for sportswear giant Adidas, is currently under investigation over allegations that it short changes its workers in places like Cambodia.
The London Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (Locog) is conducting the investigation in response to a July 14 Daily Mail article, claiming Adidas is in violation of an agreement with Locog that merchandisers must pay workers a sustainable living wage. Full of quotes from Cambodian workers, the article contrasts their seemingly meager earnings with the relatively high cost of a single Adidas Olympic garment. …
Dene-Hern Chen
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/cambodia/120723/cambodia-factory-workers-minimum-wage-olympics